Laurin Shattersmith
Laurin Shattersmith is a powerful Psion and member of the Vector Legion. She has been working as an advisor to Queen Shvitzer of the Empire of Sweat for the Legion's long-term plans. She was exposed to the Snarl during her investigation of Girard's rift, and since then her fate has been unknown. Biography She once implied that her childhood was hard, having to fight for scraps due to the environment of the Western Continent. She gained a resentment to Elves due to this, believing that due to their much better conditions, they have a false respect to her.Comic 935, "Caster Fight" Laurin was part of the adventuring party the Vector Legion, whom Tarquin believed himself to lead, though in practice was ruled as a partnership. The party consisted of her and Tarquin along with Malack, Miron Shewdanker, Jacinda and an unknown human fighter. Her stated motivation for adventuring with the Legion is to keep her daughter, Hannah Shattersmith, away from it.Comic #921, "Shot Down" Apparently, Laurin once had a incident with marids in the Plane of Water.Comic 945, "Jumbled Up" Mercenary on the Western Continent After Tarquin was deposed from his first empire, he gathered his old adventuring party together to propose a plan for eventual conquest of the Western Continent. The six split into three separate teams, offering their services as freelance warlords and advisers to the various kingdoms across the continent, gradually becoming the power behind the throne. Through a careful system of manipulating various nations and tribes to attack each other, offering conquest and then liberation, they were able to force them into alliance with one of their three empires—the Empire of Blood, Empire of Sweat, and Empire of Tears. Over fifteen years Tarquin's group had secured control of much of the continent, arranging various staged coups to keep anyone from noticing the same six people were operating behind the sidelines. She was manipulating the Empire of Sweat along with Jacinda. Blood Runs in the Family She created a Wormhole to teleport a huge army of the Empire of Blood in the desert commanded by Tarquin. After surrounding the crater left by the destruction of The Gate, he called for her to join him and was introduced to Elan and Haley. After learning that The Gate was destroyed, he confessed that he was thinking of destroying it anyway. Tarquin discovered that Nale had murdered Malack, and he dismissed a final offer by his father to accept his protection. He then killed Nale, and Laurin disintegrated his body in revenge for Malack. After that, Tarquin ordered his army to kill Roy, Belkar and Durkon, who were inside the crater. When Tarquin saw that his soldiers were not capable of killing the Order, he tried to make Miron and Laurin join the fight, but they refused. The Order took control of one of his army's allosaurus and tried to escape. He decided to go after them and called for an old favor from Miron and struck a deal with Laurin, giving her a favor, so that they joined him, riding a triceratops. After a long chase using Laurin's wormholes, they polymorphed the Order's allosaurus, only to lose their ride, thanks to V's Prismatic Spray, while Laurin received the red beam. The Order hurt Miron so much that his Contingency spell made him leave the battle. With the help of Tarquin, Laurin subdued The Order, using Tarquin's whip to strangle V, while Tarquin stabbed Elan with Roy's sword, in order to stab also Roy who was under Elan. They got distracted by the arrival of Julio Scoundrél riding a flying carpet. She kept V pinned down but was attacked by Durkon, who tried to recover Malack's staff. She teleported away to avoid his attacks. After Tarquin unsuccessfully tried to fight Julio he called for Laurin. She confessed that she was a fan of Julio when she was younger, but that she had terrible taste back then. Together, they tried to flank Julio, but Elan shot a harpoon from the Mechane that almost hit Tarquin. While he complained that Elan missed, Julio cut the rope attached to the harpoon and hung on, demonstrating that this was launched to help Julio escape, not to kill Tarquin. They gave chase, using Laurin's wormhole. Tarquin stabbed Haley in the back, and started attacking Elan, only to receive a Sneak Attack from Haley. He turned around and broke her arm. Then he threatened Elan by telling him that in order to crush him, he would kill Haley and everyone aboard the ship and cut off Elan's hand. He was stopped by V's Bugsby's Forceful Hand spell. When he was almost dropped from the ship, Laurin dispelled the hand and started fighting V. After V pointed that V still many more spells than Laurin had power points to dispel them, Laurin teleported away, leaving Tarquin to fight alone. Using her favor, Laurin asked to gain control of the valley of the Draketooth Pyramid's remains, believing that the Snarl's rift was able to support a new city with the ocean inside it. However, when she peers closer into the rift, her eyes reflect the Snarl, similar to Blackwing,Comic 659, "Flight of the Phylactery" and she and Miron gets attacked by the Snarl. It is unknown if she survived. Personality and Traits She's a dark skinned woman, with a few gray hairs. She has black eyes that turn to yellow when using her powers. She used to have three Ioun Stones floating around her head, though she only has two left after one was stolen by Blackwing following the skirmish aboard the Mechane. Outside of conflict, she is a bit more laidback and makes chat with her colleagues. She also ultimately cares for her daughter, Hannah Shattersmith, stating that she only does the things she do is that so she could have a good life away from the conflict, and she later jokes that her daughter will get a job of a lifetime if they support a new city from the Snarl rift. During conflict, Laurin is stern and has a easily touchable bad temper, which is usually triggered when someone harms one of her friends, such as when she attempted to attack Nale for killing Malack. Due to this personality, a consequence is that she isn't afraid to put out the big guns early, which can be abused to a opponents advantage if they know of this. When in battle, she is entirely focused on it, getting frustrated and angry if someone unrelated to the fight tries to talk to her. She looks like she despises Elves for the comments she made while fighting V aboard Julio Scoundrél's ship. Powers and Abilities Laurin is a very capable and powerful Psion, possibly being one of the most powerful or being the most powerful member of the Vector Legion in fighting power. * Psionic Abilities: Being high level, Laurin's psionic abilities is magnified to a degree, being able to dispel several spells, including the vampiric Durkon Thundershield's Protection from Daylight spell and several of Vaarsuvius' spells. She was also able to daze the entire Order of the Stick, even rendering Roy unconscious (though Roy had already taken heavy damage prior to the encounter). ** Telekinesis: Using Telekinetic Force and possibly Control Body She can use telekinesis to move and hold objects and pin down enemies. She abuses this ability at a great extent, such examples including using it to hold Roy in place for Tarquin to finish off,Comic 927, "Can't Help Himself" and choking Vaarsuvius with Tarquin's whip.Comic 930, "Overshadowed" ** Wormholes: An AD&D 2nd Edition Psionicist power, she is able to create wormholes so she can move things, animals and persons to great distances. She can do this frequently and multiple times when her group was chasing the Order on a Triceratops, and she was able to hold it long enough for Tarquin's large army of the Empire of Blood to get through. She could also open a wormhole on the Mechane, which was flying a long height in the air. Weapons and Equipment *'Ioun Stones': Laurin originally possessed three Ioun stones, one of which was an orange prism, granting +1 to her caster level. That one was stolen by Blackwing, leaving her two more stones of unknown type orbiting around her head. *'Headband': The headband seems to serve as Laurin's concentration point. Gallery Laurin Full.PNG Laurin Young.PNG Laurin Snarl.PNG|Laurin sees the Snarl. References Category:Characters Category:Humans Category:Living Characters Category:Evil Characters Category:Psions Category:Females Category:Vector Legion